Monkey Business was the last,
and unquestionably the silliest, of the five immensely popular
screwball comedies directed by Howard Hawks that starred Hollywood
legend Cary Grant. Whilst the absurd fantasy elements of
the plot (a reworking of R. L. Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story)
prevent the film from having anything like the sophistication of Hawks'
earlier screwball comedies and make it a rather childish affair, it
cannot be denied that Monkey Business
is a hugely entertaining film which guarantees a fair quota of laughs.
Witty quick-fire dialogue may be in short supply but there is an
abundance of hilarious visual gags to make up for this, including some
unforgettable sequences with a delinquent chimpanzee "monkeying around"
in a laboratory. Ginger Rogers is an unusual partner for Cary
Grant - a choice which Hawks himself regretted on account of her age -
but the pairing works surprisingly well, particularly in the scenes
where one or other of their characters is returned to childhood's happy
hour by the magic serum. As appealing as the Grant-Rogers
double act undoubtedly is, it is Marilyn Monroe who is the film's
biggest revelation. The actress was on the brink of stardom when
she appeared in this film and Hawks made very effective use of her obvious
sex appeal to ensure that not one heterosexual male spectator left the
cinema disappointed.
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Next Howard Hawks film: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Film Synopsis
Dr Barnaby Fulton is a brilliant research chemist who, to his wife's
dismay, has become obsessed with developing a drug that will throw the
ageing process back into reverse. Finally, after months of
painstaking research, he thinks he has succeeded. Sure enough,
when he drinks his secret potion, he sheds 20 years in an instant, and
instantly rushes off to enjoy a day of frolicking madness with his
boss's secretary. What Barnaby doesn't know is that the
real cause of his regained youth is a random concoction of chemicals
that his laboratory chimp poured into the lab's water dispenser...
Script: Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, I.A.L. Diamond, Harry Segall (story), Howard Hawks
Cinematographer: Milton R. Krasner
Music: Leigh Harline
Cast: Cary Grant (Dr. Barnaby Fulton),
Ginger Rogers (Mrs. Edwina Fulton),
Charles Coburn (Mr. Oliver Oxley),
Marilyn Monroe (Miss Lois Laurel),
Hugh Marlowe (Hank Entwhistle),
Henri Letondal (Dr. Jerome Kitzel),
Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Zoldeck),
Larry Keating (G.J. Culverly),
Douglas Spencer (Dr. Brunner),
Esther Dale (Mrs. Rhinelander),
George Winslow (Little Indian),
Charlotte Austin (Student),
Harry Bartell (Scientist),
Faire Binney (Dowager),
Harry Carey Jr. (Reporter),
Olive Carey (Johnny's Mother),
Harry Carter (Scientist),
Ronnie Clark (Bit Boy),
Russ Clark (Policeman),
Heinie Conklin (The House Painter)
Country: USA
Language: English
Support: Black and White
Runtime: 97 min
Aka:Howard Hawks' Monkey Business
The very best of the French New Wave
A wave of fresh talent in the late 1950s, early 1960s brought about a dramatic renaissance in French cinema, placing the auteur at the core of France's 7th art.
In the 1940s, the shadowy, skewed visual style of 1920s German expressionism was taken up by directors of American thrillers and psychological dramas, creating that distinctive film noir look.